The timer stopped (Retake of four layres down, due to error)
by Inceptionispossible
Summary: Jumping back and forth in Arthur's life, I've heard it's confusing so look carefully at the time zones.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hi, I'd just like to explain that I'm **

**quite new to the whole uploading and writing of **

**fan fiction so please go easy with the crit.**

**For those people like me that listen to music **

**fitting to the story these are the tracks i **

**listened to while writing it: Imagine dragons, **

**Battle cry; Shaman's harvest, broken dreams; **

**Bastille, Icarus; Iron and wine, heaven hangs; **

**Robocop 2014 theme; Shinedown, breaking inside; **

**Nickel Creek, When in rome and Imagine Dragons, **

**Who we are.**

**Again, only constructive crit, any comment you **

**know where they go! **

**ENJOY!**

* * *

Chapter One

Arthur had never been to limbo. He can't imagine

the half world, and could barely contemplate the

rawness of it as he walked through the ruined

streets.

He closed his eyes, unable to remember how he got

there, who he was and why he was there. He closed

his eyes and tried to remember.

He was running.

As soon as his feet hit the Tarmac he was running.

He didn't know why, but it must have had something

to do with the automatic gunfire puncturing the

Tarmac at his heels.

The dream was not as Ariadne had designed it.

The streets looked like a bomb had hit them, the

skyscrapers were crumbling and some were

completely devoid of glass like they had been

blown out.

He was confined to the main road. He had tried to

turn down alleys that Ariadne had designed but

they closed up before he could reach them.

The mark was protected. She had been trained to

change the dream and now her projections were

doing their job.

1 month earlier.

"Hi, Dom?" Dominic Cobb tried to blink the sleep

from his eyes after being woken by the insistent

bleep of his mobile.

"Yeah, who is this?" Cobb looked at the digital

clock by his bed. 3:20. Great.

"It's Arthur." Now Cobb was awake, he knew his

friend was completely aware if different time

zones so it worried him that he would call so

early.

"Arthur, is everything okay, why..."

"You know how you said you would like to do one

more job before retiring,"

"Yes," Cobb was slightly hesitant with his answer.

"Well, the tourist found a man who wanted a simple

extraction done on his daughter, he said we didn't

have to take it but the girl saw something and

it's twisted her. The father wants it out."

"That sounds great Arthur, but why call now?"

"Um..." For the first time since Cobb had known

Arthur he sounded unsure and flustered.

"Arthur?"

"We need to speak face to face. When can I fly

over?"

"You're always welcome Arthur, but what's wrong?"

Cobb was walking through to the kitchen, his bare

feet slapped on the smooth wooden floor.

"I can't talk, I'll be with you in twelve hours."

The phone rung off and Cobb groaned in

frustration. He leaned against the kitchen work

top and swore. He was mumbling about how

insufferable Arthur was when he heard a small

voice behind him and some sniffling.

He turned to see both his children standing, hand

in hand, in the doorway he had come through only

moments before.

"Daddy?" Phillipa looked up at him through her

large hazel eyes. She was seven, James five, but

her piercing eyes and adult features were already

strikingly like Mal's. The thought of his wife

stopped him in his tracks and he noticed how dark

his daughters hair had gotten in his absence. She

was going to look exactly like her mother.

Ariadne had helped him get over Mal during the

Inception job, but she was still there, somewhere.

"Daddy, James had a bad dream."

Phillipa had always taken care if James, but the

fact that she did made Cobb feel incredibly

guilty. The pair had become close in the time he

had been running from the authorities.

"Oh, no! What was it about?" Cobb softened his

voice.

"Gramps came and said you weren't coming home,

just like you said when mummy left." James started

sniffling again.

"And these people came and, and they said that we

had to leave home and go with grandpa to frog

land, and, and then they said we had to leave

there too, and we were left with other people who

said they were our mummy and daddy, but they

weren't, and I knew that but they kept saying they

were, and, and..." James burst into tears and

spread his arms wide.

Cobb collected him up and lead Phillipa back to

their room. He plopped James onto his bed and

kneeled by the pillow.

"Shush, now you just try and sleep. If I ever have

to go away again, I promise I'll come back, I

promise." James was asleep in seconds and Cobb

turned to Phillipa who was sitting on the edge of

her bed, and indignant expression on her face.

"What's up with you Phill?"

"You said like you WERE going away again."

"I won't, not for long, anyway." Cobb had been

craving the feel of somnacin in his veins, the

ability to bend whole worlds at his will but he

wasn't sure if another job would be good or bad

for him.

But, knowing Arthur's speed, he was already on his

way.

1 month later.

He had no idea where the rest of the team was. The

first layer had been fine. They had gotten the

mark if their side, then they had lost her. They

were running to the safe house when the mark was

snatched. The next time they saw her was when she

was ordering her mind army about. They had gotten

down a layer but that was all. The gunfire had

stated as soon as he opened his eyes, and the team

had split. Eames had sprinted into an alley with

Ariadne, Cobb and Yusuf had turned run the

opposite way and he had run. The shooting was

coming from above, but the dream seemed to have a

mind of its own, closing and opening alleys and

doors.

It was his fault they were in the mess. He had

known the mark was militarized, but he hadn't

known it was this heavy. It was just like the

Fischer job. He didn't know where the rest of the

team was. Saito was up on the first layer, he

didn't know what condition he was in but he knew

he had to run. It was a three layer dream, a

planting an idea again. It was his fault if any of

the team ended up in limbo. But then, if any of

them did, they were in pairs, and someone could go

after them. Ariadne and Eames. Cobb and Yusuf.

Then Arthur. If he went down it would just be him.

Just Arthur.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N Bit short, I'm having difficulties splitting the story into chapters so please humour me.**

**Please tell me what you think, constructive crit is much appreciated!**

* * *

Chapter 2

It had always been that way.

Arthur spotted an alley that hadn't closed up and decided to take the chance. He needed to get out of the open, sooner or later the projections were going to work out that they had to shoot in front of him to hit him. He skidded into the alley and sprinted down it. As he attempted to turn the next corner he was met with as literal brick wall. His shoulder made contact with it and he breathed in through gritted teeth. He regained his composure and reached up to the top of the wall. He shuffled back against the wall behind him and sprinted at the blockade. He scrambled up and rolled over the top. He lay on the concrete where he had landed for a second, regaining his breath, then he saw the figures disappearing round the corner. He removed his Glock 17 from its holster and peeked round. Someone grasped the barrel of his weapon and pulled. Taking Arthur with it the gun was thrown against the nearest wall, but that barely stopped Arthur. As the figure went to punch him he grabbed the mans wrist and pulled him toward him, ducking just in time to pull the other into the wall.

Arthur pushed the man back against the other wall and kicked him in the side of his head. While the man was down Arthur intended to retrieve his gun and end the fight but the man grabbed his ankle and pulled him off balance. In seconds Arthur was pinned. He could feel blood pooling in the ground from a wound where he had smacked his head on decent. The man above him continuously hit him, forcing the trauma on his head to widen from being pushed against the concrete. The man was heavy, but when Arthur saw his gun in the corner of his vision he found strength to shift the man from him. He crawled along the ground and found the grip of his gun, simultaneously pressing the barrel to his attackers chest while pulling a combat blade from his boot and pressing that to the mans throat. He was ready to pull the trigger when a voice pulled him out of his violent haze.

"ARTHUR! ARTHUR! ITS EAMES! HE'S EAMES! STOP, ARTHUR, PLEASE STOP!"

13 months earlier.

"...intestinal worm?" The Japanese man looked down distastefully at the bowl full if food before him.

"I think what mister Cobb is trying to say is..."

"An idea." Cobb interrupted Arthur. As the latter looked over the mints leading up to inception all he saw of that dream was that conversation, talking to a particularly attractive projection and then getting shot. Twice. It almost brought a grin to his usual thin lips at the thought of it. He got shot by a shade, then by his best friend!

But could Cobb really be called a friend, or had Arthur just been a much needed crutch to serve as a temporary support to be hidden in a cupboard among brooms until needed again. It made sense, for that was exactly what happened after inception. They had all promised to keep in touch. Eames almost lived with Yusuf so that was easy, Ariadne had finished her coarse and was now working in America, so she often visited Cobb, who welcomed her with open arms.

But not Arthur.

After the job as the team separated in the airport Arthur had told Cobb and all of the other team members to call him on a phone he reserved for explicit numbers if they needed him, or wanted to talk.

But no one but Eames had, and that had been once, but it had been a familiar voice among so many strangers.

Despite being rich enough to lie back in a villa somewhere Arthur chose to continue work. But he didn't choose, he was pulled toward it like an addict to a drug store. He couldn't let it go as Cobb had, or regulate it as Eames had.

He was addicted, the jobs got more and more adrenaline packed as time wore on. And still, Cobb didn't call. The younger man had tried not to resent those he saw walking hand in hand with a lover, but it was difficult. He told himself it was easier to sever ties after every job, getting attached to someone just made you vulnerable. Even if Arthur tried he probable couldn't keep a relationship.

He had always been the perfect child; smart, quiet at the table and honest, sometime brutally so.

He had been perfect bar one thing.

In their desperation to beat the faults from him Arthur's parents had forgotten to teach him empathy, emotion and how to love. That's why he had felt no remorse leaving that day. Packing his bags and slipping out one night had been so easy. He walked for a while, then changed schools, opting to live and survive on the streets. It was a difficult life full of violence but like the identity he forged for himself he moulded into it seamlessly. He decided that was what he would do. He would become Arthur. Just Arthur.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N Sorry if the text was a bit scrunched up on **

**the last chapter, I'm trying to fix it.**

**I might not be able to update for a while **

**because I'm going on holiday and i can't post **

**from my iPod, but trust me, I'll be writing.**

**Rate and Enjoy**

* * *

Chapter 3

13 months later.

Eames looked down onto his friends face, shock

crossing over over his own. He had only seen him

like this once before, and that had ended in a

highly skilled martial artist that had been sent

after Eames dead, ruthlessly killed by an enraged

Arthur. The latter had pulled the gun but Eames

had attacked first, so they were both as bad as

each other. Arthur just happened to be the better

at hand to hand.

The blade Arthur had was pressed so hard against

Eames' skin that was already drawing blood. He

stared into Arthur's eyes and for one second,

despite Ariadne's desperate cries, as Arthur

cocked his gun, he thought that he was going to

see what limbo was like. Then Arthur seemed to

snap out and he scrambled away.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what happened." Arthur

muttered as he climbed to his feet.

"Me neither, sorry mate." Arthur nodded, gingerly

touching his head where it was wounded.

Ariadne had tears in her eyes from the violence

between the two team members.

The trio grouped together and started down the

alley.

"I'm sorry Arthur," Ariadne started as Arthur

brushed himself off. He looked up questioningly.

"I was blocking the alleys, when we heard you

coming we thought it was a projection and closed

it off."

"It's okay, I'm fine." The group walked through

the alleys in silence, listening intently for any

sign if life other than themselves.

Finally the silence was shattered.

"Do we have a plan in the situation chaps?"

"Of coarse we have a plan, it's Arthur we're

with." Ariadne looked nervously at her male

companions.

"We have to survive until the kick, them get the

hell out."

"Well that's advanced thinking for you." Eames

smirked slightly through the drying blood on his

face and soon regretted it.

Arthur pushed him against the wall, lean figure

hiding his considerable strength.

"What do YOU suggest we do, run of and try to find

Cobb and Yusuf, we have one gun, less than full

clip and no idea of the force in this city, so I

suggest we stay in the alleys, wait until the kick

and meet Cobb and Yusuf up top." Arthur

practically snarled into Eames' face as Ariadne

pulled him away.

"You could always dream one." Ariadne looked at

the two men, wondering what had happened to them

that made them so hostile.

"Dream what." Eames was defensive but looked at

Arthur, clearly concerned.

"A gun,"

"No." Arthur's answer was short and final.

"Why?"

"Because the mark is already aware she's dreaming,

summoning a weapon will only drag the projections

toward us."

"Oh, well then."

Cobb/Yusuf

"Run!" The team had split, and Cobb found himself

running along side his chemist. They sprinted down

an alley and stopped for breath round the corner.

"What do we do?" Yusuf wasn't the fittest of the

team and was clearly out of breath.

"We try to complete the mission."

"Cobb, that's stupid, we should try to find the

others..."

"No, we can't botch the job, someone will die."

Both Cobb and Yusuf knew that was true, but they

hopped no one was dead already.

2 years earlier.

Cobb practical hung from the window of the hotel

room screaming after his wife. His wife who had

just jumped to her death because of him.

She wasn't going to wake up to him attached to a

PASIV, he had planted that idea in her head,

ultimately killing her. She wasn't going to be

reunited with her real children. She would be

dead.

Cobb had never shifted the guilt, that's why Mal

remained a shade in his dreams.

But Arthur he been there to help, to pick up the

pieces. He had brought Cobb back to reality, and

reminded him that his children were now motherless

and needed a father all the more. He gave him the

target of getting back to the USA, back to his

children, and had been there as a support the

whole way.

But what happened to that support when the goal

was reached, was it thrown away: no. Was it

worshipped: no. It was kept just close enough so

that if the bearer slipped once more it would be

there to support again. That was exactly what Cobb

did to Arthur. He had leaned on him so heavily

after Mal's death and the kid had taken that

weight, but once back in the states Cobb was so

desperate to be the good father that he had

forgotten about Arthur, the ever present crutch.

After every job the boy changed his name, just to

be safe. Cobb didn't understand this, none of the

other dream workers he had been in a team with had

done that, but Arthur did. Cobb had also noticed

that he had never been in one of Arthur's custom

dreamscapes, it had always been a private matter.

He started to lose trust in the man. At first he

dismissed it as a way to let go of his past, but

then the numerous things Cobb didn't know about

his friend made themselves known in his brain.

He didn't know Arthur's sir-name; didn't know his

birthdate; didn't know where he had been born;

didn't know if he had any family anywhere and he

didn't know how the child Arthur had come to be in

the lab that night.

2 years later.

The trio had been walking for about an hour when

Arthur shouted.

"Eames!" Eames pinned Ariadne to the ground as

Arthur fired his weapon at the skyscraper window

where he had seen the glint of a sniper rifle. The

round fire from the window embedded itself in the

concrete as Eames pushed Ariadne into another

alley.

There was obviously more shooters in the area as

bullets started to riddle the paving in the alley.

While Eames and Ariadne where forced to one side

Arthur stood flat against a wall and slowly edges

along to another turn off.

"You two start down that way, I'll go this way."

Arthur and Eames turned to walk when Ariadne

objected.

"We have to stay together, survive 'till the

kick!" Arthur continued walking and Eames had to

grab Ariadne and drag her away from the opening to

stop her from running into the line of fire.

"He'll be fine, you saw what he did to me!"

Ariadne's struggles subsided and she allowed Eames

to steer her further down the path, toward an

apparently abandoned skyscraper to initiate a

kick.

Arthur had to force himself away from Ariadne's

shouts and down the alley. He knew he wasn't going

to get the kick in time, so he decided he would do

something to make sure the others did.

Cobb and Yusuf were close enough to the other

three that they heard Ariadne's shouts. They

looked at each other and started sprinting,

shouting in response. They reached a skyscraper

that backed onto the alley system, it's door was

slightly ajar so the two invited themselves in.

They waited for their eyes to adjust to the

darkness before continuing down a hall and up a

few flight of stairs. They heard talking from one

of the higher rooms and entered.


	4. Chapter 4

5 years earlier.

Mal, Arthur and Cobb met in a bar after the job. It had been successful, and had left them all $25.000 richer. The married couple got completely and utterly drunk, so much so that Arthur, the only one sober in the bar (including the barman) had to put a stop to the session before either died from alcohol poisoning. He drove them back to their hotel, led them to their rooms, (they were giggling all the way) and locked up behind them before leaving for his own room. He had a spare key card for each the rooms is he could get in if the need arose. And it did, two days later when the party were set to leave and the two didn't turn up in the park. Puzzled, Arthur headed back to the hotel only to find that shots had been fired, hostages were being kept and the French police were swarming over the scene. He skirted the area, sure the situation had something to do with him, and broke in through an unguarded window.

There were five men, all armed and most certainly working for a disgruntled employer. Arthur stood by the door into the foyer. He saw one if the men scanning the crown before pointing to both the Cobb's and dragging Dom up to his feet. One of his colleagues took Mal and the two were taken to the bar. Arthur could see the security cameras had been shot out, but there was one line camera by the door. It was there, no doubt, to film the execution of the Cobb's. The leader of the band took Mal and dragged her onto the lacquered wood bar by her hair. She kicked and shouted for Dom, who struggled against his captors.

She managed to place a vicious bite on the assassins fore arm, but that only succeeded in him dropping her onto the bar. When she was on her feet her head was raised. She had a cut above her eyebrow and her curled hair was out of place but she stared defiantly at the camera as a fun was raised to her skull. At that point Dom silently hoped that whoever watched the clip would have his wife's eyes boring into their soul before they went out, but he didn't need to worry for long.

When he was looking in the right direction Arthur made a sharp movement and Cobb saw him in mirror. He nodded slightly to show he understood before looking at his wife. She looked at the mirror and understood too.

Arthur shot the nearest man in the head and advanced to kick another in the chest. He head butted the next. That was the signal. Dom threw his head back into his captures nose while he was distracted. Mal elbowed her would be executioner in the stomach and pinned him to the bar while her husband used some tie wraps he had found in a drawer to attach the ones Arthur and himself had incapacitated to tables before moving to the man who had tried to kill his wife. He hit him once, twice then tied him to the bar for all to see.

All the hostages looked up at the trio wide eyed as they were ushered from the building. Mal mingled toward the front, Dom to the middle and Arthur to the back. Before the police got round to them the group fled into Calais.

5 years later.

Yusuf gently pushed the door open and Cobb walked in, gun raised. Eames spun in his seat, own weapon held high.

When the two recognized the other guns were lowered and Ariadne went back to cleaning the blood from Eames' face.

"What happened to you, projection get you?" Cobb pulled up a seat as Yusuf secured all the doors.

"Arthur."

"What!"

"We though he was a projection, he came round the corner with a gun and I don't think either of us realized it was the other until after u had thrown him into a wall and he had broken my nose. Even when we did he had a gun to my chest and a knife to my throat. All the explosives are set for 45 minutes."

"Where's Arthur." All form of humor was gone from Cobb's voice when he asked that question, and Eames's when he answered it.

"We got separated in a fire fight. I took Ariadne here and he went down another alley." Eames looked at the ground as if asking for support against the incoming wrath of Cobb.

"You WHAT! Do you know what that boy will do to keep his team safe? He'll go to the third level and finish the job, but he had no intention of waking up. How could you let..."

"Cobb," both the man were standing then, "neither of us know what Arthur has been through but we both know what he is capable of, and sometimes it's better bit to ask, and you can't say you treated him with upmost respect either! Have you noticed how strange he's been acting lately, and does it occur to you how often he killed in the dream and reality for you, and do you not think that can make a person slightly unstable, disturbed? At least I called him after the job, you retreated into you perfect little domestic life while Arthur worked to cover your tracks!"

Ariadne turned on Cobb then.

"You said, when I left that time and once the kids were in bed you would call him! But if took him to come with a job, a JOB!" Ariadne made one sarcastic laugh that was out if character for her before backing down and apologizing.

"You didn't go to see him, nor him you so why are you criticising me, and if coarse I've noticed how he's acting, he's jumpy, violent, but not unstable!" Ariadne turned on Cobb

"If you hadn't noticed me and him aren't exactly best buddies darling, and what state did you find him in that lab? Where you aware that by that time he had cheated his way into the marines and ended up in the PASIV project at 16. 16, godamn it! You found him at nineteen, yes? How many men do you think he had killed in active duty by that time, or how many people he had had invade his dreams to prod and pry for information? Now do you have and answer to why he doesn't allow people in his dreams as you keep asking, because their damaged!"

Eames stared daggers at Cobb who's mouth was opening and closing in a manner bit unlike that of a fish.

Ariadne sat on a chair and held her head in her hands while Yusuf looked at the timer.

"We have 20 minutes, not enough time to find him and ride the kick." "We have to go back for him, we can't leave him Cobb, he's still a kid!"

Cobb walked over and leaned on a window sill. He laughed a little and pointed at the distance.

"I don't think he wants us to leave, he wants us to catch the kick."

7 years earlier.

Mal and Dom had chosen to have their wedding in autumn. The leaves were all varieties of reds, browns, golds and yellows and the light was dappled on the forrest floor as the wedding procession made its way up the hill to the venue. The guests had been ushered inside minutes before and Arthur was still holding Dom by his shoulders, shaking him slightly, telling him repeatedly that it would all be alright, all go fine when the music started. The two men split apart and waited for Mal, the bride, to come into their peripheral vision. When she did the breath was pulled from Cobb's lungs, and Arthur graces the room with one of his rare smiles.

Mal was wearing a white dress. It was a stark, but beautiful contrast from her dark eyes and hair. The dress ha one thick strap that was draped in a sash like manner over her left shoulder. Small, delicate, fabric flowers ran in a stream from her shoulder round her waist and ended with larger flowers at the hem which flared only slightly from her knees down to her ankles. The pearls sewn in the centre of the flowers glinted in contrast to the slightly shadowed areas of the pleated fabric. It was obvious Mal was a nervous as her fiancé as the whole crowd could see her chest steadily rising and falling under the tight fitting dress...

Arthur had remembered that day vividly due to the months he had spent practising his best man speech. He had only know Dom for a few years but they had instantly grown close, Mal had brought Cobb round to the idea of taking on a trainee something, but when Cobb met Arthur, he didn't need to be told twice.

7 years later.

Arthur envisioned a pack of flares and a gun, then reached into a skip and found one. He knew the survival of the team was with him, as it had been so many times before, but this time it was different. He had constantly had flashes if his former life, he had seen so much a teenager shouldn't have seen, but there was not taking those images back, no amount of therapy or extraction could do that.

He shivered slightly as an image of a knife and a gun sat on a table before him crawled into his mind.

10 years earlier.

"You should take on an apprentice." Mal looks at Dom across the flat floor.

"We need a Point Man, after all."

Dom huffed for a few seconds.

"Fine, I'll try." Mal giggled impishly at her persuasion.

"Now," Dom pulled Mal into a quick kiss, "are we going for dinner or not?"

Cobb still had his job in a research group on the night he had nipped out with some old PH paper from the lab and had re-entered to find and young man, having clearly picked the lock on the window, flicking through the files on Cobb's personal computer. Dom's first reaction was to use the lab phone to call security, but then he saw how greedily the boy's eyes were scanning the information about the new form of dream share, and how he could se it being filed away for later, and he thought: Point Man. When the dark haired teen finished the reachable files he got up and walked around the numerous flasks containing new sedatives, studying each one and it's notes carefully as a doctor would a patient.

When Cobb cleared his throat he thought he had snuck up and been clever, but in fact Arthur had seen him in one of the flasks.

"Why are you in my lab?"

Arthur turned, looking only mildly interested.

"No reason. I just had some experience with dream sharing once and I thought if taking it up again."

Cobb grinned. That was exactly what he wanted to hear.

When Dom had run out of knowledge to feed the 19 year old the boy had gone looking himself, and had been successful. The boy had become the best Point Man in the business, but being constantly organised, emotionless and clear headed came with a price. The organised and emotionless had already been taught, that's why Arthur was so easy to teach, but before being the the marines Arthur had spent a few years among the homeless and gang networks. That was where clear headed was difficult. When out in the streets what came to mind was what you did, you followed your instincts and survived by acting on impulse.

Eventually Cobb had straightened Arthur out, but those parts of that Cobb taught him to suppress, the vicious, ruthless, animalistic, military parts of were never truly gone.

Those were the parts that Eames had seen showing through in the weeks preparing for a job.

Arthur was usually subdued. He would ignore anything Eames said but from the start of that job he had made a habit if leaving the ware house and sliding down a wall out side and, when he though no one could hear, he would shout in frustration. Sometimes they were barely recognizable animalistic cries, sometimes he would kick a wall and shout, but rarest of all Arthur would shout, then sit against the wall and mutter quietly.

10 years later.

Arthur walked calmly out of the alley and onto the empty main road. He set up the PASIV, cleaned two needles and fired the flare gun. He reloaded and fired again, and again and again until projections swarmed around him. He was pushed to to ground, kicked and trampled but he still protected the PASIV. After a few minutes the projections parted and their harsh laughs subsided and a tall woman walked to Arthur's side. She lay down on the ground beside him waited for him to match her position.

"Why did you come after me? What did I do?"

"You saw something. It started making you lose sight of reality, I'm here to get it out."

"Who made you do it?"

Arthur sighed.

"I can't tell you."

"Why?" The girl looked to the man, and Arthur realised she was so young, early twenties. Then he saw her somewhere else. He could see her dark blonde hair and slim figure standing in a tatami room with a glass of champagne in her hand, he could see her laughing eyes and perfect teeth in a gym hall before he left home...he knew her. But she didn't know him.

"They just want the best for you. I can't ruin your relationship with them by telling you."

"Um, why do you have this thing?" The girl was completely different from the woman who had been ordering battalions of projections after them only hours before.

"It helps you dream."

"I haven't dreamt for a long time..."

"Your dreaming now, but you know that don't you. The PASIV helps you dream, you're dreaming, this is another dream and I want to find what ever you saw and take it out, then you can dream again." The girls brow furrowed slightly as she contemplated the idea.

"Will you tell me what you saw?" The girl shook her head, blonde curls shifting over her shoulders.

"No, I can't." Arthur nodded and took her hand.

He lifted up one of the needles he had cleaned.

"Will you let me find it?" Then the military side came out.

"I know you from somewhere, I'll tell you what I saw, you can find and indirect way to tell your team then we go down a level, and I find out who you are."

Arthur nodded. Then the girl was back.

"But it'll be us, just us, no other people." Arthur wasn't pleased going down a level with a border psychopath, but he had to find out what had happened, for the girls sake.

"If you want no people there, we need to go down two more levels," Arthur closed his eyes, "I'll create the world as we go." The girl nodded and leaned close to him.

"There was a man, he was tall, in an old track suit and he looked like a demon, black eyes, growling..." The woman coughed and regained her train if same thought.

"He had this girl up against a wall in an alley and he was whispering, and she was crying and shouting for help so I pulled out my mobile, I had it in me to call a cab it get back from the club, and I started to dial the police but the man spotted me and threw the other girl the the ground and pushed me against a trash can and said if I told anyone what I had seen he would find me, and the girl in the alley, and he would take us away, and, and," the woman burst into silent tears against Arthur's shoulder. Arthur knew he had to get whatever traumatic memories over come other wise the girl would keep shifting between the serious woman of her age and the pre academy child that was crying against a man of a similar age's shoulder.

"I'll be right back." Arthur stood and put a can of spray paint in his hand. He sprinted down the street and scrawled on the wall of a scraper, then ran back to the PASIV and took the needle offered to him.

He inserted the needle into his arm and waited for the girl to do the same before pushing down on the centre of the PASIV, starting the third dream sequence.

Arthur woke with a PASIV in his hand and rushed to where his companion had woken. They lay down on the concrete again and inserted needles.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N**

**Thanks to Poldasauce for their constructive comments, I'll try to make it more understandable!**

**More on this as I write it so please bare with me!**

**I'm also writing a Ripper Street fic so if you like that sort of thing say and I'll upload it!**

* * *

Chapter 5

12 years earlier.

From his time spent with criminals Arthur knew how to forge a passport and identity flawlessly, so he made himself Daniel Morris, a 17 years old high school success who decided to serve his country.

The best way, Arthur had once been told, to forge an identity was to use half truths. At that point Arthur was late in his 15th year and, having been private tutored and spent time among books, already had the capacity to go to university, so that part was almost true.

But Arthur seemed drawn to the army, and soon became Private Morris.

Being top in his group and always having great recommendations meant that Arthur had the opportunity to join the marines. He did. And because he joined at exactly the right time he was drafted to the Dreamshare program soon after joining.

He had enjoyed the technical part of things, the technology was still new and Arthur loved the thought if experimenting.

The first night on camp Arthur wondered what he would be doing if he had chose not to join the marines later, or if he hadn't joined the army, or if he hadn't left to mingle with the night on street corners that evening at all. Would he still be the perfect child, or would it happen anyway?

The whole Dreamshare group had to be incredibly fit to stay in the program, so most spent their time in the gym. Not Arthur. He spent his days in the labs, experimenting and learning the theory of the machine, then spending time at night on the track and in the gym. The notes he had read said that muscle was not needed as much as stamina, so that's what Arthur worked on.

Due to his lack of muscle compared to the rest of the group he had been strangled several times and usually came off worse in hand to hand, but he had learnt. He had learnt how to put one of his adversaries on the ground with ease and how to keep calm in many different situations. Those instincts were buried so deeply in Arthur's head that when the American based program was dispersed and all the precipitants were shipped back to active duty they applied them selves. Arthur was promoted several times before being honourably discharged due to a blast injury. He was discharged as Captain Daniel Morris. He disappeared under another alias before locating the Dreamshare program and deciding to look into the research himself.

12 years later.

Arthur opened his eyes.

The girl opened her eyes.

They were pressed close, knees tucked up to chests in a small bubble. There was concrete beneath them but that was all. The girl started to panic with the small space. Started to hyperventilate and when Arthur looked at her she was coughing and her lips were turning blue.

"Calm down, calm down," the girl didn't. "Um... What's your name?"

The girl looked up.

"Ebony," she took a slow breath, "Ebony Maxwell."

"Right, Ebony Maxwell, I'm Arthur and I'm going to get a bad memory out of your head." Arthur knelt and put his arms above his head like a weight lifter. After a few seconds Arthur stood and made a wide ark with his arms, and the mist surrounding him dissipated. It was replaced with a alley. An alley like the one Ebony had seen the man in. She scrambled to her feet and out of the alley.

"Hey, look it's okay, he's not here, and breath for gods sake!"

Ebony steadied her breathing and started to walk with Arthur down the pavement. Arthur made the dream a dockyard, Ebony put the alleys between the containers.

Ebony made the space, Arthur filled it. In each alley there was a little bit if Arthur. The second was showing a younger Arthur on his first day of pre school, the third his first day of middle, the forth the day he stood up to his class bully and the fifth the day the same bully beat him up in a alley during the holidays.

The sixth was Arthur's first day at high school. It was his first day in a school since being withdrawn due to bullying.

15 years earlier.

Arthur remembered his first day of high school. He had dressed in the new uniform and taken the bus for the first time. He had walked to his first class and waited like he had been doing it all his life. He had walked with the crowds to lunch and been swept into the line. He got what everyone else seemed to be getting, which was pizza. Arthur had never been particular fond of the food, so had left more that half. He had been waiting in the canteen at his seat picking at the margarita pizza before him when a girl he recognised from the library sat down opposite him.

"Don't like it?"

"No"

"Why order it?"

"When in Rome." The girl laughed and the two swapped plates.

"You look out of place, any reason why?" Arthur didn't usually trust easily, but this girl seemed friendly and she was in some of his classes.

"I was pulled out of classes during middle school, bullies and all that, so I haven't been around this many people in a while." The girl nodded, not prying any further.

"I saw you in the library, I believe your in some of my classes."

"Yeah. I think so."

"I'm Ebony Maxwell."

"Arthur Morris." The two shook hands and continued lunch. They found they had several different things in common, but Ebony didn't have her parents change her name when she started school.

It didn't take long for the two to bond in a way more that friendship. They spent most of their time together and if either of them needed to study the other would keep them company.

Arthur revived private tutoring by request. Since he had started high school he had intended to leave. He wanted more from his life.

15 years later.

Ebony looked, wide eyed at Arthur.

Arthur looked at her.

"Arthur?" She seemed to be putting the name to the face and when she did her eyes lit up.

"Arthur?" She said the name with more conviction this time and threw her arms around her high school friend.

"Oh my god, Arthur where did you go all those years?" Her voice was muffled from where her face was buried in Arthur's chest.

Arthur rubbed her hair and lead her onto the next alley where the two could be seen lying on a hill, looking up at the light polluted night sky.

Arthur had a rucksack to one side and held Ebony's hand on his other side.

"I need to leave. I'm going tonight."

Ebony looked at Arthur. Her eyes were full if shock and she looked like she had been hit.

"I'm coming with you then."

"No, I'm not ruining your life by making you a part of mine, I'm leaving the state, probable stay in the street for a while. Then I'm going into the army. I can't see tho being part of that."

"Why? Because you think I'm incapable of that life?"

"No. It's because I'm afraid you would take on that life for me, and I don't want you to resent me for taking you from your old life."

Ebony nodded and smiled through her tears.

"Don't disappear forever Arthur. Please."

Arthur nodded and stood. As the 15 year old Arthur walked away from the grassy hill outside his childhood neighborhood for the last time, back pack slung over his shoulder, he only felt sadness having to leave Ebony.

Not his family. Ebony. As he walked over the crest of the hill Ebony got to her feet and ran after him. She caught his arm and pulled him round to face her. When she was satisfied she grabbed the back of his neck, pulled him down to her level and kissed him. After a second Ebony pulled away and looked up at him.

"I didn't see you."

"Of coarse you didn't." Arthur smiled and watched as Ebony hurried away over the other side of the hill.

The memory played on loop so the two started toward the next alley.

It showed Arthur meeting the leader of a gang and his initiation into the group. The next was Arthur forging a passport and the next Arthur meeting Cobb.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N**

**Im coming to the end of this story, I hope you've enjoyed it!**

**This is maybe the second, third last chapter. **

* * *

Chapter 6

The two watched Arthur climb into a lab by the window, speed read the files on the computer about dream sharing and then looking only mildly surprised to see the researcher, Cobb, standing at the door.

The two saw Cobb laugh after him and Arthur had talked and then watched Cobb taking Arthur back to the flat he shared with Mal.

They entered and Cobb started explaining extraction, which he was already taking part in.

After a few hours of constant and very elaborate talk around the subject of extraction and the type of work Arthur would be doing if he decided to join the dream share community Mal swanned in through the door.

"Oh, my, Dom really does have friends!" Arthur quickly stood and started for the door but Dom caught him.

"Do you have a second name I can contact you by?"

Arthur shook his head.

"Just Arthur, thank you. And I think I will take the job, where should we meet?"

"Where are you staying?"

"Mister Cobb,"

"Where?"

"Out of town, but..."

"Oh, then you shall stay here!" Mal butted into the conversation.

"No, I'm not sure..."

"But of coarse, if you Dom and myself are to work together we must get to know you!"

In the memory Mal then proceeded to make up the spare room and cook dinner while Arthur and Dom continued to talk.

"Why does she insist on me staying?"

"It's the French in her." Arthur laughed a little and Cobb did to.

The memory ended with Mal calling the men to dinner and Cobb thundering through the house, Arthur a more quiet tail.

Ebony laughed at the next alley where Arthur could be seen trying to eat a coq au vin that Mal had cooked while he was living with the Cobb's after a job elegantly.

Her laughing stopped when they reached the next alley.

She had seen Cobb walk into the airport, Arthur at his heels.

They boarded a flight and Ebony watched as Cobb dropped his head into his hands.

Arthur got out of his seat, waving the flight attendant away as she tried to move him back to his seat.

"What happened?" Ebony whispered even though the event was past.

"Cobb's wife, Mal, she..." Arthur stuttered, "she jumped out of a fifteenth floor window." Ebony clasped her hand to her mouth and looked forlornly at the past Cobb.

The next alley was empty, and the next, then there was the man. He looked strangely familiar to Arthur, like a figure from a half remembered dream...

He held the small, average looking girl up against the wall and when he turned he looked truly demonic.

His eyes were black, pure, jet black and his eyebrows arched in a strange way. He started to advance, getting taller, the sky getting darker.

Ebony screamed and Arthur couldn't help it. He dreamt a Glock 17 and shot the creature in the head, in the foot in the leg and in the head again. Ebony was pressed against a skip and hyperventilating again.

"Look, Ebony it's okay, please just calm down!" Ebony looked at him, eyes wide and Arthur pressed the gun into her hand.

"In the next alley, you will see him again and this time you have to shoot, it will be you over coming your fear."

"I... I can't shoot a person."

"Fine, um..." Arthur knew it was difficult to shoot even an imitation of a person, "don't move away from him, stand your ground and look him in the eyes."

As they came to the next alley and the man advanced again.

Arthur could see Ebony trying to look fearless but her strong statute didn't spread to her eyes. She lost her will and stumbled back into a crate. At the man approached Ebony saw he had a knife that she had never noticed before.

He drew the knife to her throat but before he could run it though her skin Arthur shot him in the head.

"That was close, let's try again."

Ebony nodded and aloud herself to be walked to the next alley where it happened again. She lost her brave streak and fell against a wall.

The next alley was different. It was in front of them, rather than to their side. The two people entered the alley. It was longer than all the others but it closed up after them. Ebony reached for Arthur's hand and she took it, lacing their fingers together.

They walked, the two never ending building bearing down on them. As they walked further into the darkness the end seemed to get further away. Then a hand came from behind Ebony and grabbed her pulling her to a wall. She was in the position of the other girl. Arthur shot the man, but another appeared in his place, holding Ebony in place by her throat. She started to wheeze, the sound tearing holes in Arthur's skin it was so harsh. He shot the man again and pulled the woman away from the wall, pushing her down the alley. She stumbled but ran. Arthur's gun disappeared and reappeared in the mans hands. Arthur spun him round and twisted his neck to an awkward angle. Another one was behind him. "ARTHUR!"

"RUN! EBONY RUN!"

It sounded like the girl was running and Arthur sighed with relief, despite being surrounded by identical men, all sneering with black eyes.

Then there was a vicious scream from behind him and Arthur almost rolled his eyes.

The man behind him was pulled away and tossed against a wall, his head cracking on a stone. Another man was kicked back away from Arthur then he himself stood, lashing out to any figure around him. When they two were sure all the men were gone they started down the alley again, keeping watch this time.

It didn't take Arthur long to realize he was no longer in control of the dream.

He knew this many layers of a dream was unstable, and that if anything happened to shake the world the dream wound collapse, but there wails be no riding the kick back up. He planned to blow a building while Ebony was inside, but the alley seemed to go on forever.

Arthur was certain that Ebony his overcome her fear, as she was acting more like the girl he had known; intelligent, funny and loveable.

After the attack the alley started to shorten, and eventually it widened to make way for a Main Street.

The pair emerged on to New York street. Arthur led Ebony to a scraper and started to set explosives when they were on the fifth floor.

The pillars above them were going to give way after the ones below them, crushing them after the kick.

"I just needs to set some more, I'll be right back."

"Make sure you are." Arthur smiled an nodded leaving Ebony in the room.

His instincts told him that he had seven minutes left.

He started to set the other explosives around the floor.

He could feel it, there was something wrong about the dream. Something wrong with the way Ebony's projection of the man had behaved: the way it had multiplied, the way it had hold of a knife after a while and the way it had snatched Arthur's gun without touching him.

The thing was becoming sentient.

Then Arthur remembered where he had seen the man.

His face had been the face for extraction once. He had turned it illegal.

A team new to the business had attempted an extraction. It had gone wrong.

The man was left with almost all the sanity ripped from his brain, but had still been released into the public.

Then Arthur had a terrible thought.

What would happen if that man had taught himself to access other peoples dreams, when he was in them?

It was the man controlling the dream. Arthur ran to the next floor, locked the room Ebony was in from the outside and sprinted back down stairs. For a second he thought he was wrong: that he had read the signs wrong, and almost aloud himself to be relived, relaxed and safe.

But then, no one on the dream share community was ever safe. Not him, not Eames, not Yusuf, not Dom, not Ariadne. None of those who had been dragged into the business by the scruff of the neck or those who had come willingly like Arthur would ever be safe.

Hoards of people was sprinting down the street, the man at their head. Arthur tried to block the door but there was only south he could handle. The man broke in and swung a club at Arthur's head. He ducked and looked wildly for a way in as the people started to circle.

"Arthur? Arthur!" He could hear Ebony slamming her body against the door behind which she was locked.

Arthur willed the door to be strong-he still had control of some aspects of the dream- and spotted his exit. He ran toward the window and propelled himself forward through the glass.

Arthur saw something soft: a skip filled with cushions, but the man changed it to a skip full if cans. Arthur saw this and twisted so he landed on his side, he wasn't winded as much but the broken cans still cut his skin. As Arthur rolled from the skip he kept more than half of his concentration on the door to the fifth floor: one, to keep Ebony in, the other to keep the man out. But it seemed he wasn't interested in Ebony because he was outside then, pushed Arthur to his knees.

A window appeared on the side of the fifth floor and be Arthur saw Ebony looking out at him with wide eyes. The man drew a knife and she screamed and pounded the window with her fists, then slammed against it with her shoulder.

He looked to Ebony as if ask permission when he was behind Arthur. He smiled maliciously and Ebony screamed but it did little to deter Arthur.

He elbowed the person behind him, threw the two men who were holding him down the the side and whipped the detonator from his pocket.

Ebony stopped screaming for a second when she realized what her friend was going to do, then she shouted.

"DONT GO AWAY FOREVER ARTHUR! There's people up there who need you." Arthur closed his eyes trying to block her face from his eyes and pressed green button in the machine. The detonator was set to a timer so there was a few seconds where the man had the chance to dig his knife into Arthur's throat. Arthur's world went dark just as the kick was initiated.

Ebony plunged through the floor of the building and woke in the building where Cobb and Eames had dragged her and Arthur.

Se heard a woman shout.

"Why isn't he awake?" Then the next kick went and the team woke in Saito's level. The Japanese man pressed the detonator and they all woke in the real world. Cobb leaped up and slapped Arthur's still form without hesitation. He didn't move. All the team reached for their totems and Eames growled in frustration when he recognized the weight.

Eames rounded on Ebony.

"What happened?" Eames was right in Ebony's face but she didn't back down.

"We went down a level. The man I saw was there and Arthur said I had to get over it..."

"Wait, your on first name terms now?"

"He was a friend in high school so yes, we are. Back to the point, the man seemed to know things, me and Arthur hid in this building and he said he was going to set some charges but he seemed to know something I didn't because when I heard some shouts he had locked me in. I tried to break to door but it was too heavy. This window appeared and I saw Arthur held down by these two men and the guy from the alley behind him with a knife. Arthur blew the building and the man killed him."

Cobb thought for a second. Ebony had neglected to tell the team of what she had seen of Arthur's life, the crumbling cities in his dreams and of what she had seen of Cobb.

"Ariadne, draw the man from her description," Cobb gestured to Ebony on her and Ariadne grabbed her note pad, "Yusuf, see if there's anything wrong with him externally," the chemist set to work, "Saito, you best get back..." The man chipped in.

"No, mister Cobb I shall see this job through until your friend is safe."

"Fine. Help Yusuf." The business man nodded.

"Eames, you and should try to identify this man." The Brit nodded, but seemed reluctant to leave his friends side.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N**

**Well, because my iPod is a hormonal ass it deleted half of this chapter but I can probable write it better!**

**Just to confuse its in present tense, if there is any past tense-I don't think there is- then bare with me because I tend to write in past. **

**Thank you to Poldasauce for their continued support, it makes me want to write more!**

**Enjoy chapter 7**

* * *

Chapter 7

He wakes with gritty sand pressing to his face, water lapping at his waist and an unpleasant sensation lingering round his throat.

He rubs where the feeling is.

The scrunches his eyes up, grits his teeth and clenches his fists and try's to dispel the phantom pain.

As he does so there is a flash, a detonator is in his hand, a girl in a building and a knife to his throat.

He presses the button and one of the many skyscrapers before him crumbles in on itself.

He climbs from the sand and looks around.

Before him there is a city: one that reaches off in every direction and rises in methodical steps like giant stairs.

To his left is a traditional tatami mansion on a rocky ledge. It looks out of place among the crumbling city, and yet fits so well.

To his right endless city and beaches of white, gritty sand.

Behind him ocean and an angry sky.

He stands on the beach for a moment before moving forward to where one of the roads of the city cuts off.

It's about ten metres up, but he seems to feel he can climb it easily, like he had done more dangerous things in the past.

He reaches for a small out crop and finds a foothold before hauling himself on to the next set.

It takes him only minutes to scale the wall, despite being in a three piece suit and shoes.

He reaches for the waist band of his trousers but his hand comes back empty.

Empty of what? He didn't know. It just seemed to come to him.

He walks down a wide street, towers reach to the sky all around him.

Something catches his eye as he walks past a side street, and he stops.

Cobb is almost dosing off when the PASIV bleeps three times.

He looks up, wiping the sleep from his eyes.

The PASIV's timer has stopped on one minute.

"YUSUF!" Cobb leans over his friend and slaps him.

It wasn't elegant but the man is like a brother, he needs to wake up.

The chemist runs into the room and looks at the timer worriedly.

"I am sorry Cobb, I don't know." Cobb is just about to explode when Eames joins the room.

He looks at the PASIV and drops onto the chair beside Cobb.

"You know something?"

Eames nods, but not happily. He opens his mouth but then the PASIV bleeps again, seeming rudely happy for the moment and situation.

Then the counter starts again.

1:01

1:02

1:03

1:04

1:05

"It's counting BACK?" Cobb looks at Eames, desperation laced through his eyes.

Eames nods, and starts.

"I've seen it twice. I was on a job with a new team and the Point man, well let's just say he wasn't Arthur." Cobb nods knowingly. Arthur was the best in the business. Not ONE of the best, THE best.

"Something went wrong, second layer, and the extractor, me and the architect were all crushed by an early kick.

The Point, however, was fast and a flight of stairs above us, so he survived.

The timer stopped, started counting back again, and it reached the original time, but as far as I know the boy isn't awake yet.

The timer still counting, it's on 763 days now.

Second the man, forger this time, woke up, must have done something, but he woke a total psyco, he didn't know who he was out of all his past forgeries and he ended up going on a shooting spree in china, thought he was a forgery he had done if a serial killer.

In prison as far as I know." Eames finishes and Cobb looks at Arthur's still face, then puts his head in his hands.

"So, your basically telling me that if he wakes up at all, he's going to be a psychopath?"

"That was with a forger, so I don't know."

"DAMN IT!" Cobb slams his fist on the table.

"Cobb, it times turning back because something happened, something big, down in the dream scape, and because Arthur is so aware in a dream he is forcing the PASIV to give him more time to think, but it also means that time moves slower in the dream. He's going to physical deteriorate here because days will be hour to him."

"I thought time moved fast in the dream?" Ariadne walks in.

"This is different Ariadne." Cobb snaps at her.

"So it's been, what, two, three hours?"

"Three." Saito provides the time easily.

"That's something like ten minutes there.

It's a rare case, Cobb, I don't know what to do."

The two men look at their colleague and friend.

There isn't many people in the business you can trust to do their job as well as Arthur does.

He sees two children playing by a dustbin, and their names come to his lips easily.

"James? Phillipa?" The children turn but they are not the beautiful Cobb children he seems to know.

Their cheek bones stick out more prominently than they should, and under the bones is dark and bruised looking.

Their eye sockets look hollow and the collar bone have small shadows resting in them.

Then he realises they weren't playing, they were foraging for food.

"Unka Arthur!" The strange shades run toward him the he picks them up.

Arthur.

Was that his name?

As he spins with the children he catches his reflection in the cracked glass of a sky scraper.

His black hair his wet with salt water, his suit crumpled, but his cheeks to are hollow and his eyes dark.

Something's not right.

"Have you come to stay, unka Arthur?" Arthur lets Phillipa lead him down the road while he holds James with his other arm.

"Why do you ask?" His voice is croaky with disuse like he hasn't talked in hours.

"Because mummy and daddy said they loved us, they said they would never leave us, but they did.

They fell asleep and didn't wake up."

Phillipa supplies the answer.

The city looks like a hurricane has hit.

The glass is broken in windows, the doors flung across the street and Arthur wonders where the other resident are.

Did they leave?

Leave like the Cobb's did to their children?

Cobb paces for at lease an hour before sitting to have a small amount to eat.

He wanted to watch Arthur every move, but after a few hours he was dosing, and Eames had to take over.

He watches Arthur until Cobb comes back round and ushers him away.

The counter is on seven hours and fifty nine minutes when Cobb summons Yusuf again.

"YUSUF!" The man runs through, it being mid day, and looks at Arthur and the PASIV.

The counter is going slower, leaving at least ten normal seconds between its ticks.

Eames looks at it and shrugs.

"With the others it just goes normally, it's either a dream Arthur doesn't want to wake from, or it's something really messed up."

"So, what is the time doing?" Cobb feels Arthur's pulse and looks to Eames.

"I'd say, ooh, about three minutes to our five hours..." Cobb lunges at Eames and pushes the Brit against a wall.

"You lie. It can't be that." Cobb snarls into Eames face.

"Not, lying," the forger struggles for breath before Cobb throws him to the floor.

The extractor slumps in his chair.

"He's going to die if we don't get him to hospital, isn't he."

Ariadne is in the corner and she stands.

"No. He won't die, he'll wake up...won't he?"

"Darling," Eames pinches the bridge of his nose, "three minutes to five hours.

He's gonna have to pull something off pretty quick if he's going to survive without treatment, or he's going to be the stubborn Point man we all know him as and fight until he's unable to fight any more." Ariadne starts to cry, and Cobb is close to.

Arthur walks with the children for about three minutes before this stop.

They start toward a building completely undamaged in every way, and yet it seems broken in to many ways to list.

The children now both lead him toward the elevator.

"Mummy and daddy always wanted to live somewhere like this, but have a nice house.

Outside they had to chose, but here, in the real world, they could have both." The elevator pings as it reaches the desired floor and the doors open.

Arthur recognises the hall that stand in as that of the Cobb household, but instead of the usual clean and dusted room the hall looks like no one has walked it in years.

The wallpaper looks like it had been torn and ripped at by carefully filled fingernails and the doors like they had been kicked off the hinges.

They group walks into the living room where, on the carpet, Malorie and Dominic Cobb lie, hand in hand, attached to a PASIV. Arthur hurries over and slaps Dom before Mal then checks the PASIV.

1:00

1:01

1:02

1:03

The PASIV is counting back.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N **

**HELLO!**

**Sorry I haven't uploaded for a while, been a bit busy with original stories!**

**Read, enjoy, rate, comment and follow! **

* * *

Chapter 8

"What do we do?"

Ariadne has finished her sketch and Eames recognized the man, but not as Arthur did.

"Cobb, he will not survive without sustenance for long, you must take him to the hospital." Yusuf looks at Cobb after checking Arthur again.

"Yusuf, I know! But how do you suggest we explain the man being attached to a PASIV, the highly dangerous and illegal dreaming device?" The chemist opens his mouth but the words are cut off.

"Do you expect us to sit here and watch him die! Do you!" Ebony snarls into his face from where she has pinned him to the wall.

Eames stands and walks to where Cobb is pressed to the wall.

"Do you? Are you going to let your best friend die because you can't risk going to prison? Well, I can't talk for everyone else but I'm taking him."

Eames turns away from Cobb and Ebony lets him fall to the floor.

Yusuf starts forward.

"I'll bring the van round." Him and Ariadne disappear and Eames gently slips his hands under Arthur knees and back before lifting his lithe form and carrying it toward the door. Saito picks up the PASIV and follows.

Cobb knows if he takes Arthur to the hospital there is a risk he will be arrested and taken from his children, but the others weren't afraid.

But then, Saito could work his way out of anything, Yusuf and Ariadne could leave the country once they got him there, and Eames had nothing to lose by getting caught.

But he, he had two children who had cried as he left them that day.

He had a father-in-law who could look at him disapprovingly while he stood before the jury.

He could hear the van starting up again and stood.

He would get him there and see.

He leaves and climbs into the passenger seat in the cab.

Eames, Ariadne, Ebony and Saito sit on the floor in the back, Arthur and the PASIV between them.

"Oh, so The Lord so vain decided to join us, did he? Or is he going to scarper when we get in sight?" Eames looks at Cobb murderously before going back to Arthur.

Yusuf revs the engine and speeds off to the nearest hospital.

James points to his sleeping parents and tears well up in his big blue eyes.

"Didn't wake up." The children sit on the couch and look at their parents. Phillipa puts her arm round James's shoulders in a comforting way, but she was too skinny herself to provide any comforting warmth.

Arthur goes to join them but some movement in the corner if his eyes stops him.

The kitchen door is slightly ajar, so Arthur walks toward it.

"UNKA ARTHUR!" Arthur recognises James voice but it is raspy. Arthur continues.

He pushes open the door and looks inside.

At the table sits Mal, a knife next to her hand.

Cobb slumps down near her and Arthur spots Ariadne and Fischer on the balcony, a storm raging outside.

It's like a scene from a film that's been muted. He watches Ariadne raise her gun and shoot Mal, then kick Fischer over the balcony. She shouts something to Cobb before leaning back and letting herself be swept away. Cobb leaned over his dying wife and says something, then the scene changes. The kitchen table is gone, replaced by a conference one made of lacquered wood. Cobb sits at one end, shovelling some sort of rice into his mouth. An old Japanese man sits at the other end, a stainless steel spinning top by one hand, a hand gun by the other.

Words are spoken, silent to Arthur, but he sees a look of enlightenment on both the men's faces before the older of the men shoots Cobb then himself.

The room warps and Arthur is back in the kitchen. Mal is at the table, Ariadne and Fischer on the balcony, Cobb walking to his wife.

Arthur then knows that this is what happened in limbo, and because no one had altered the half world since then it had stayed that way, the moment playing over.

Arthur looks to the balcony, judging how long it would take for him to hit the ground.

He hears an enraged scream from behind him and turns to see the Cobb's children, both standing and advancing upon him.

They slowly grow taller, then start merging together.

"THEY LEFT US! THEY BOTH LEFT US FOR SO LONG! ITS NOT FAIR! NOW YOUR LEAVING AND ITS NOT FAIR!" The children flowed together and changed into one of the men Arthur had been in the dream share program with. That particular one had taken a liking to killing Arthur in exotic ways.

He sees the man and Arthur's natural instinct to survive kicks in.

He over turned the table against the kitchen door and dreams a gun. He presses himself against the wall next to the door and waits as the huge man bursts through the defences easily. As he barrels past Arthur steps into the doorway and shoots the man in the head. He carries on until his clip is empty but the man doesn't drop. He nearly turns and looks at Arthur like he is a fly to be swatted.

Arthur dreams another gun and starts shooting again. He sees another clip and starts shooting with both guns, starting to back away from the advancing beast.

No matter how many bullets Arthur sends flying into the mans skull he doesn't stop, and eventually Arthur stands against a wall.

The man grabs Arthur and tosses him against a bookcase.

Arthur grits his teeth and try's to reach his weapon which had been thrown across the room but the man stands on his elbow and uses his heel to grind the bones out of place.

Arthur tries to stay silent but when the man puts all his weight on the foot on his arm Arthur lets a small choked sound out.

Balanced on one leg the man kicks Arthur in the stomach, switching the smaller man onto his back.

He kicks his prey in the side of its head then in face with all the force possible.

Arthur is winded so isn't able to prevent the man pulling him up and hitting him in his already bloodied face.

Then the figure changes, and Arthur is held by two Japanese guards and Mal stands beside him. He sees Cobb standing behind a table.

"Pain, pain is in the mind." Mal adjusts her aim to Arthur knee and he know what is to happen next.

She pulls the trigger and he can't stop himself slipping to the ground and screaming, then dissolving into heavy breathing and muttering. But this time Cobb doesn't dive across the table and shoot him in the head, he stands and slowly walks to Arthur.

Mal shoots Arthur in the foot and he screams again.

"Cobb, what?..." Arthur's voice is hoarse but his sentence is cut short when one of the guards punches him in the stomach.

"Arthur, did you never, despite you infante knowledge if the dream world, ever think that because Mal was MY shade, that I might have some control over her? Did you never think that?" Mal shoots him in the side of his other knee.

Arthur whimpers, for that us all he can manage.

Then the scene changes again, and he's back in the skyscraper. Both his knees are splintered wrecks of blood and muscle. He drags his useless legs across the room, leaving two trails of blood behind him.

He crawls over the splintered door, and screams as a piece of wood digs into his bloodied foot.

The journey to the hospital would take an hour and a half usually, but with Yusuf at the wheel and his foot permanently on the accelerator it was only going to take an hour.

Fifty minutes in Arthur screams. He writhes then drops into silence.

Ariadne is crying as Eames leans over his friend.

"YUSUF!" The chemist presses the accelerator down as hard as he can and speeds through a set of traffic lights.

"IM GOING!" Yusuf shouts back.

"NO, YUSUF, WHATS WRONG WITH HIM?!" The man turned in the seat for a split second before looking back to the road.

"I don't know." The man mutters and shakes his head.

"I don't know."

Arthur drags himself to the balcony and try's to hoist himself onto the rail but something grabs him from behind.

He kicks and wriggles and screams but the things grip is tight as it drags him back into the house.

He turns his head and sees a figure, a human figure.

Arthur is thrown down on the splintered door and a shard digs into his back, narrowly missing his spine. He cries out again, no longer possessing the energy to fight the pain.

"You always were a disappointment! Trying to run from what's always coming!" Arthur looks up and sees the stern face and broad shoulders of his father.

He had taken after his mother in looks and build, that made Arthur's father angry. He wanted a strong son, but instead he was gifted with a small, knowledge thirsty one.

He had only been proud when Arthur left and he didn't have to look after him anymore.

"But to be honest, Arthur," the name is spat, "I was glad when you left, you know. That mean I didn't have to take care of you anymore. I could leave you to your own devices without being done for negligence." The larger man kicks Arthur in the stomach, then grinds his heel into his knee.

Arthur screams through gritted teeth and try's to move away but he's pinned down.

Then it changes.

Arthur sits in a room, on a chair.

Mal sits before him, gently dabbing at a wound on his head.

Dom stands in his peripheral vision, running his hand through his hair.

"Arthur," Mal grasps his hand. Then Arthur remembers, it was after a job -one of his first- the mark knew how to forge, and had chosen Dom as his subject. Arthur had let him get near, thinking it was his friend, but had been rewarded with knife to the side of his leg, and mark driving it in and out, asking why they were on his property. Still in the form of Cobb.

The man himself had completed the job and rushed in, saw his friends position and shot the mark without question, then looked at Arthur. He raised the gun and shot Arthur for the first time.

"Arthur?" Arthur looks at Mal.

"Arthur, it wasn't him."

"He...he shot me." Mal nods and looks at Dom sympathetically.

"You were in pain, the job was finished. There was no point in prolonging your suffering." Arthur remembers how he had woken and staggered from his chair. Dom tried to approach him, tried to apologize, but he had backed away, slipped on the floor and curled up against a pillar.

Dom stopped but he could still hear Arthur's pleads.

"Please...please don't hurt me anymore."

Mal holds Arthur's face in her hands and looks him in his darting eyes.

"Arthur, pain is in the mind."

The scene is replaced by Arthur's mother looking down on him.

"Your fathers right, you always ran." She drags him up, fingers digging into the wound on his back.

She tosses him down again and is replaced by Eames.

He is larger than Arthur and he bares down on the smaller man.

"That's right, darling," the name was no longer comforting, showing Eames still had his humor, it is an insult.

"Pain is in the mind. Tell yourself that."

Arthur does.

Pain is in the mind. He imagines himself fit and healthy, legs able to hold his weight again, back able to move, and stands.

"YOUR BREAKING THE RULES!" Eames has a warp of James and Phillipa's voices as he looks at Arthur, horror in his eyes.


End file.
